‘We need to stay away from the British divide and rule policy': Tripura CM Manik Sahan ahead of I-Day
'We need to think about the kind of problems that occur due to division. If we are not united in the future and the country is divided again, what will be the situation? So, to keep brotherhood intact, the prime minister has set the target of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. Along the lines of the Viksit Bharat 2047 dream that the PM has seen, we are also trying to create a Viksit Tripura. It will be possible if we work together,' he said while speaking at a Partition Horrors Remembrance Day event at Maharaja Bir Bikram College in Agartala.
'Even today, such incidents happen in our society. Riots were orchestrated in different ways… Having learnt lessons from history, we will not allow division. We need to stay away from the British divide and rule policy,' he said.
Recalling the struggle for independence, Saha said many people were killed, many women were raped, many children were still missing, and many people were displaced. 'We always think about ourselves. But what we are required to do for our state and country does not come to our mind. In the era of social media, we learn about the entire world… Pages of history never get dull. If we read history, it teaches us many things about our present and future,' he said.
Saha said the British policy of 'divide and rule' had led to Hindu-Muslim riots. 'Such riots don't happen because of religion, but the real reason is political,' the BJP leader said.
Saha later wrote on X that the Partition was a painful scar inflicted on the body of a newly independent nation, adding that the then rulers divided the nation for their own interests, 'driven by the two-nation theory'.
'To bring this traumatic chapter to the forefront for the new generation, today addressed the main event of the 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day' organized by the Higher Education department at the Rabindra Hall of Maharaja Bir Bikram College,' he wrote.
Saha further wrote that the Kashmiri Pandits faced persecution at the hands of militants and Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee never wanted the Partition but said that if India was to be divided, Bengal had to be divided.
'It's because of him, the Hindu Bengalis got a place. Many people from both East Pakistan and West Pakistan came here after leaving their houses, properties and from India, Muslims went there,' he added in the X post.
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